Search This Blog

Science of Apology in Communications

An Apology in all crisis circumstances is the most important tool that rebuilds the perception of positive intent. This in turn, forms one of the three most important pillars of rebuilding (corporate) 'Trust'.

For an apology to be impactful it must have three important components. Firstly, it must be honest (and must also seem as genuine as it really is). Secondly, it must show self-sacrifice (which implies that the company or person making the apology must make a statement for the public good). And lastly, it must be done with the right attitude (which implies that it must be made in time & in the right manner).

Even if one of these three aspects is missing from the apology, the apology becomes counter productive and often deteriorates the image further. When organizations willingly or unknowingly commit errors, the act almost always erodes the trust the stakeholders have painstakingly built and placed on the organization. This is because such errors question two more fundamental building blocks of Trust, namely Competence (if the error was unintentional as in Toyota's case) and/or Intent (in case the error was intentional as in Satyam's case). Unfortunately, in the case of Toyota, the unintentional technical error was compounded by inaction and delay which almost made the lack of action 'intentional', and therefore showed lack of proper intent of Toyota, adding to its PR woes.

Especially in cases like Toyota, an apology would have been the most important tool to mitigate this Trust crisis. This is because 'acceptance of a wrong' showcases audience empathy, and also helps rebuild a non-threatening ambience (which allows the stakeholder to begin the process of building 'Trust' yet again)- another essential in creating stakeholders capacity to trust the company.

In fact, the apology is almost a clinical solution to errors, but if its substituted with the placebo of a plain 'acceptance' of the error, its impact will almost always be negligible.

Endnote: Studying 'Apology' further, the impact of apology is so strong that, strangely enough, an apology even without a transgression creates a very positive influence over the target. If, however, one can find a reason for an apology (without sounding ridiculous) without a reason to be apologetic, it is more likely to exert positive influence over the target. Typical examples of this are in the use of terms like ‘I’m sorry to be troubling you…’ are likely exert a better influence on the target.

(Update on 9th May 2012: This article and more in this blog became the basis for chapters in my forthcoming book 'Decoding Communications'. Please visit http://decodingcommunications.blogspot.com to see the progress of the book)

Comments

When crisis strikes, often the IQ of organizations (as also individuals) comes down to a tenth. Instead of communication professionals they often take the first run to legal professionals (as was evident in the Tiger Woods case). Such a step, can actually be counter-productive.

Honesty and timely communciations is the first rule of PR. Unfortunately corporates have too many advisors to 'protect' the share price. Though they attempt to lessen the crisis burden, they actually compound it by hiding and being dishonest.

Your point is very well put, however, in Toyota's case, an effective apology would be irrelevant as more quality issues surface. Furthermore, Toyota's brand is grounded in quality -- more so than other brands because of their communications strategies.

Popular Posts

Recently, I interviewed a young journalist wanting to turn to public relations as a profession and I asked her two questions. The first, why she joined journalism received an appropriate, though expected answer - 'To give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves', followed quickly by 'It is perhaps the only profession in which you can be fearless and work towards correcting the wrongs you see in society.'

I gave her a smile, and lodged my second question. 'Why then do you want to shift to Public Relations?' She remorsefully replied, 'I'm disillusioned.'

That conversation, in a nutshell, sums up most of mainstream journalism today. Viewed from the outside, most see a brave, determined journalist standing up for the truth, upholding the 4D principles above all - Detect, Discern, Doubt and Demand. When seen from the inside, most journalists have experienced persuasion - bordering on mild coercion disguised as 'advice', management encou…

If there's a commodity that perishes as swiftly as it is created, it is news. The longer it takes to create, the higher its longevity and by corollary, news produced by the second, dies by the second.

We want our gratifications without any waiting period, we want to gulp down our food, build instant abs, get rich immediately and also know everything now. We are also anxious to know more and more, and information has become a status-according social currency.Fortunately, acquisition of knowledge does not have a finish line and so it behaves quite differently from instant abs or instant noodles.

In this hurried age, magazines play an important role by balancing societal myopia with perspective; need-for-speed with understanding, and anxiety with patience. The magazines analyze and opine like the elders of society - and hence also play the role of elders in the information society. In an age when every new opinion becomes news, magazines bring perspective through considered informat…

(also appeared in Firstpost) The recent Tata boardroom spat has
spawned many faceted discussions, and one of these has been on the appointment
and role Independent Directors – an aspect that not only concerns governance,
but also Board room expertise. Like many, I spent a considerable amount of time
wondering what the boardroom discussions would be like, extrapolating from the
little information that was available. To emphasize the need for expertise in the board, the rules
for appointment of independent directors of a board under the MCA Act require
the independent director to possess appropriate skills, experience and knowledge in one or more fields of finance,
law, management, sales, marketing, administration, research, corporate
governance, technical operations or other disciplines related to the company's
business. It is quite clear that expertise (and not just experience) is one
of the necessary qualities of the board. The question that kept coming back to
me was whether it …